VOGONS


First post, by TeddyTheBear

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Just a heads up that Creative's Connect site http://connect.creativelabs.com seems to be down for me at least. I know I could access the site less than a month ago.
The ALchemy supported games Knowledge Base is still available on archive sites such as http://web.archive.org/web/20130602090134/htt … s/AllItems.aspx

For any that don't know, ALchemy is a DirectSound3D API to OpenAL API wrapper that restores support for positional audio and reverb effects in games for Windows operating systems newer than XP (Vista/7/8) specifically for Creative's line of gaming sound card products.

Edit: I found an official response on the creative forums http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=6 … ll=1#post542273

Reply 1 of 6, by silikone

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Damn, there were many useful things there. I hope the downloads are backed up somewhere.

Do not refrain from refusing to stop hindering yourself from the opposite of watching nothing other than that which is by no means porn.

Reply 3 of 6, by sliderider

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d1stortion wrote:

It's about time for Creative as a company to go into the "twilight zone"... 😀

Only if they sell the Aureal A3d technology to someone interested in keeping it alive first.

Reply 4 of 6, by DracoNihil

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I think the reason they shut down that part of their website is because OpenAL is dead to them. The newer Sound Blaster cards don't even have hardware accelerated audio anymore... so now I have to put up with audiodg using up senseless amount of CPU time...

I hate Windows 7\Vista for this BS audiodg crap... I wish I could just hack it all to use OpenAL as a HAL for everything and bypass audiodg entirely. (and the "Windows Audio Service) in general...

“I am the dragon without a name…”
― Κυνικός Δράκων

Reply 5 of 6, by NamelessPlayer

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Gee, no wonder OpenAL isn't adopted much over the last five years. Even Creative lost faith in it.

Someone needs to buy out all that 3D gaming audio tech that Creative has an iron grasp on and make an audio middleware that curbstomps FMOD and Wwise with it. Maybe part of that could even include a software OpenAL renderer that doesn't suck (Creative's own software OpenAL implementation has issues here and there, particularly select DS3D games wrapped with ALchemy) and includes its own equivalent to ALchemy, unlike Rapture3D. Hell, maybe they can implement full Aureal A3D 2.0/3.0 support while they're at it, too.

To think we've gone from true 3D positional audio that can be mixed in whatever way the audio device sees fit, to hard-mixed 5.1/7.1 speaker systems worth of audio...it disgusts me.

Reply 6 of 6, by d1stortion

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I've messed with X-Fi and the card was an utter disappointment in all respects. I wrote my experiences down on this forum. The old A3D business can be ok at times but then again it just adds another layer of instability to Win9x so I don't get the hype here either.

The software DSP stuff at least... works....